IPO activity down in 2003

Canada's IPO market dropped nearly 20% last year from 2002, due in part to a cooling off in income trust offerings.

Of the 56 companies that went public on Canadian stock exchanges in 2003, 21 (37.5%) were income trusts. In 2002, a total of 69 IPOs came to market, and more than half (35) were income trusts.

Some December IPOs, how-ever, indicated investors may be ready to move back to a broader range of equity offerings, says Eric Slavens, IPO services leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Workbrain Corp., an IPO worth $40 million, is the first software offering in the Canadian market in three years, and GMP Capital Corp., worth more than $100 million, came to market in the financial services sector.

"These suggest that more traditional public offerings may be making a comeback," he says.